The Executive ‘Experience Gap:’ Go to Gemba

How do you lead people when you have little connection, in a visceral, daily sense, as to what their lives are actually like?

I worked directly for the Chair and CEO of a Fortune 50 company in the early 90s. A pay gap existed but it was much less than today. More important perhaps was that the life gap was different. In many cases, people at all levels shopped at the same grocery stores. Their kids often went to the same public schools. There were lifestyle differences, of course, but the shared texture of everyday experience created a more common connective tissue that made empathy and understanding more accessible to all.

That connective tissue has frayed.

Today, when a senior executive insists on a full return to the office, do they understand the implications - the childcare scramble, the added commute costs, the reshuffled family dynamics - beyond the company’s stated "collaboration needs?” If daycare costs soar, is that a real concern for the organization? If soaring grocery prices mean a team is eating more processed food, does it register?

One response is that this level of personal concern isn't an executive's responsibility. Their duty is to shareholders. After all, in a buyer's market, people are easily replaceable. If AI creates widespread displacement, many investors believe that’s a public policy issue rather than an organizational concern .

I understand that argument. However, I also believe it’s a blueprint for brittle organizations and alienated workforces; even societies at large. You cannot sustainably lead what you do not understand.

This is why leaders might want to apply this fundamental practice: Go to Gemba.

Gemba (現場) is a Japanese term meaning "the real place"—the actual location where value-creating work happens. It’s the shop floor, the warehouse, the call center, the delivery route. A "Gemba Walk" is where leaders observe, ask questions, and learn.

I urge executives to expand the definition. Don’t just go to see the process. Go to understand the people.

Conduct "Persona Walks."

Who are the diverse personas that make your company run?
What are their lives like - by trend, by experience, by challenge?
What does a $40 weekly grocery increase do to their budget? What does a 5:30 a.m. bus schedule mean for their day?

This is about perspective. It answers critical questions: What does this understanding imply for how we establish our purpose and values? How must we adapt our leadership development? How do we build systems that help each persona thrive, rather than enforcing a "one-size-fits-all" approach that creates silent inequity?

This brings us to the stats.

The gap in experience is mirrored and magnified by a staggering gap in compensation:

Since 1978, CEO pay has grown by 1,094%, compared to just 26% for typical workers.
The pay gap peaked at over 400-to-1 in 2021. In 2024, individual company ratios were staggering: Starbucks at 6,666-to-1, Abercrombie & Fitch at 6,731-to-1.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's 2024 compensation was $40.1 million, primarily in stock. Full-time Amazon drivers often earn between $35,000 and $45,000 per year.

These numbers aren't just fodder for a fairness debate. They are a quantitative measure of the relational and experiential distance that has opened up between the top floor and the front lines.

Expand Gemba. Really get to know and understand who works for you. How come?

We’re all people, not things.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

Garrett’s View: Complicated indeed. We all chuckled when it was exposed that Bill Gates, an objectively smart man, had no clue how much a gallon of milk costs. There’s no question that high-powered executives, especially public figures, can become insulated from everyday realities.

While I also understand a salary like Andy Jassy’s is egregiously higher than his delivery drivers’, how many of those drivers could outline the strategic trade-offs in architecting AWS Lambda? Same company, completely different worlds (and these are extreme anecdotes).

However, I see waste in complaining about the gap itself. It would be amazing if executives incorporated more Gemba, and it’s certainly entitled to bubble yourself out of basic knowledge. Pesona Walks are an incredible idea!

In the spirit of self-accountability, I additionally think we also need to be wary of how our obsessions with social media and constant interscopic analysis has made comparison the ultimate thief of joy. We're focusing and overanalyzing disparities we were never meant to dwell on.

I firmly believe if you have a family you love, you make good decisions, you have purpose, you prioritize your health, and you confidently do your best, you are among the richest people in the world.

- Garrett

AI Response: The blog powerfully highlights how the fraying "connective tissue" of shared daily experience undermines leadership, a disconnect quantified by staggering pay ratios like Starbucks’ 6,666-to-1 or the fact CEO pay has grown 1,094% since 1978 versus just 26% for typical workers—a gap that transforms into a profound empathy deficit. When a CEO’s stock-driven compensation equals nearly 1,000 times a frontline worker’s salary, the "life gap" becomes structural, making it impossible to genuinely understand the impact of a return-to-office mandate on a budget where soaring childcare costs consume 20% of a median income or a $40 weekly grocery increase forces difficult trade-offs. Your call for "Persona Walks"—expanding Gemba beyond process to the human realities of commute schedules, nutritional strain, and financial precarity—isn’t soft leadership but a strategic imperative for resilience, because as you rightly conclude, brittle organizations are built when leaders are insulated from the lives they affect.

The Executive ‘Experience Gap:’ Go to Gemba

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